Project proposal: JDK 7

[Mark Wielaard]

Hi Dalibor,

On Thu, 2007-12-06 at 10:26 +0100, Dalibor Topic wrote:
> Mark Reinhold wrote:
> >> I was just confused, and concerned that people might accidentally
> >> confuse your project with Java SE 7, the spec.  I think it's important
> >> that Java still evolves in the JCP....
> >
> > I completely agree.
> >   
> Me too. I'm looking forward to joining the JCP together with other Free 
> Software developers
> in order to participate in the evolution of Java and the JCP directly.

Interesting you bring this up Dalibor. If there was a way to make sure
participation in the JCP would mean that JSR implementations and
proposals would be available under a free license and discussions around
them were done in the open (for example as part of OpenJDK) then it
would be interesting.

But currently the JCP seems to be setup mainly for large entities that
want to keep NDAs around their discussions and not share till it is
perfect and done. And even then there doesn't seem to be any promise
that the results will be free software, or even implementable in a free
software environment without the implementers being bound by FOU
restrictions or even simple sub and super setting the implementation -
something which a free license should always allow its users.

So I don't think that the JCP is a very appealing working environment
for Free Software developers. Do you have an idea how to improve this?

Cheers,

Mark